News
Finishing touches at City Mill Pool Street
With time running short, the Betongpark team worked their magic to add the finishing touches needed to prepare City Mill Pool Street for our opening event! 📝🎉⏳
Floor pouring time!
Ever wonder how they make skatepark floors so smooth? Check out these short clips of the Betongpark team and witness the magic in action! 🧰🪄
Week two of construction at City Mill Pool Street is complete!
The weeks are flying by at City Mill Pool Street – check out our recap clip from week 2, on-site with the Betongpark team.
Construction underway at City Mill Pool Street!
Work is well underway at City Mill Pool Street – check out this short clip of the Betongpark team putting the finishing touches to our pyramid, as well as our gallery of the first week of construction!
2021 East Summer School Video Recap + Special Announcement!
With summer 2022 upon us, here’s a video recap of our popular summer school programme from last year, realised in conjunction with Here East and funded by UCL Public Art. 🌞🎓
As well as benefiting from expert skate lessons from the team at Learn To Skateboard UK , our lucky summer school participants also got to design their own skate dots as part of our special model making workshops.
As a final surprise, the team at our construction partners, Betongpark, then constructed one of the skate dot ideas at full size for our participants to try out! 🔨🪚🛹
Since the start of the City Mill Skate project, our main challenge has been to find a home for our skate dots. But we are very pleased to announce that we have now secured our very own space – to realise our aim of building a new kind of inclusive skateable space featuring skate dots on the UCL East campus in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park! 📍🌳🌿🍃🎉
Subject to planning approval, we will be able to begin building full size skate dots in autumn 2022 – and once completed, we look forward to inviting you to our new home to come and to test them out for real, alongside an exciting programme of events 👀🛹
2021 East Summer School Video Recap
City Mill Skate panel discussion as part of the London Festival of Architecture
As part of the 2022 London Festival of Architecture, City Mill Skate hosted a panel discussion at the UCL East Marshgate site within Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Alongside exploring the history of the City Mill Skate project to date, our panel also discussed how the project could be used to create more inclusive skateable places in the future.
Our panel for the talk included:
Dr Esther Sayers, City Mill Skate
Sam Griffin, City Mill Skate
Simon Cane, Director of Cultural Engagement UCL
Daryl Nobbs, Director, Betongpark
Marie Mayassi, Melanin Skate Gals and Pals
The discussion covered the logistical challenges faced by the City Mill Skate team in delivering a program of community engagement and participatory design during the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns. Esther and Sam from the City Mill Skate team went on to trace the City Mill journey in building a proposal designed to culminate in the creation of a new form of skateable space. A space that balances concerns around: the need for safe public spaces for a diverse set of user groups via skateable architecture, ensuring biodiversity, and also responding to the unique set of environmental concerns that govern Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park itself.
For more details of the London Festival of Architecture talk, please check out our gallery showcasing the presentation slides discussed by the panel.
‘Skater Girlhood’ published in Grey Skate Magazine
‘Skater Girlhood’ – is a collaborative project between academic, skater and mother Esther Sayers and skater and photographer Amanda Fordyce.
“The scene at many skateparks nationally has seen women and girls taking up skateboarding alongside men and boys in ever increasing numbers. They are forming an alternative girlhood, consciously positioning themselves against what they perceive as the mainstream and against conventional forms of femininity in which bruises, scabs and scars would be unwelcome.”
Click on the link here to read Esther’s article, accompanied by photography from Hackney Bumps and other locations, captured by Amanda over a year-long period.
‘Skater Girlhood’ was originally published in Grey vol. 05 issue 12, released December 2021.
‘No Comply’ skate exhibition at Somerset House
Since we founded the City Mill Skate project in 2019, we have been interested in capturing the voices of a wide range of skaters across East London and beyond. 📍🌇🗺
With this in mind, it’s an honour for us to be included in ‘No Comply’ – a new exhibition at Somerset House exploring the phenomena of skateboarding and the impact of its culture and communities on the UK over the past 45 years. 🙌
Curated by Tork Turk @tory_turk with special assistance from friend of City Mill Skate, Helena Long @helenalegslong , No Comply is based on an original idea by Frankie Shea and brings together a superb range of photographers, filmmakers and other creatives. Safe to say we are very grateful to be in such great company! 📸🎞🎨🖼📝🛹⚡️
If you are downtown or just en route to Southbank, pop in to Somerset House to check out this fantastic exhibition – No Comply is open until September 19th 👀😃
All 📸 © Tim Bowditch